CLAPPING BEAT/PULSE

Clap the Beat or Pulse of the Music while I play drums

LISTENING

Listen to examples of pop songs using 4/4 meter and 3/4 meter

TIME SIGNATURE

The ‘Time Signature’ is the fraction found at the beginning of a piece of music. It tells us two bits of information. The top number tells us how many ‘BEATS’ are in one measure. The bottom number tells us which kind of note will represent the ‘BEAT’.

In other words if the time signature is 3/4, there will be three beatsin each measure AND a quarter note will represent each one of those three beats.

Think of splitting a up in different ways. In 4/4 time there would be a whole pizza or 4 quarter notes in each measure and the quarter note (bottom four of the time signature) will get the beat.

Now that you have a beat to work with and understand how many beats are in each measure you can start to create rhythms using a variety of different kinds of n note and rest values (whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteen). Remember that each beat value (quarter note) needs to be kept the same so if you create a rhythm for one beat the total value of the notes and rests in your rhythm need to equal to that same value.

If we were in 3/4 time there would be 3 – 1/4 notes in each measure. The rhythms for each beat then all need to add up to 1/4 note. (example: 2 1/16 notes and 1 1/8 note)